It is common for businesses and homeowners to have an alarm monitoring system for detecting alarm event conditions (such as intrusion, fire, carbon monoxide, flooding, temperature conditions, appliance status, etc.) at their premises via premises devices, which report the events to a server or other system that notifies the user. The user can then monitor the systems through their phone, PDA, etc., or remotely interact and control the alarm monitoring systems at their premises (such as lighting, thermostats, energy management devices, security systems, etc.). Typically, these systems may also provide alarm event information to a monitoring center that can contact first responders on the user's behalf, typically over a conventional phone line, and more recently cellular and broadband networks.
Often such systems are installed after completion of initial construction of the premises. Alarm devices such as smoke, radon, and carbon monoxide detectors are typically installed during initial construction, and without consideration of a subsequent additional alarm monitoring system. These components/alarm devices often cannot be used with monitoring systems as they lack the necessary communication interfaces, such as wired connections to electronic system control panels or wireless transceivers operating under one or more of a variety of industry standard or proprietary protocols to communicate with a receiver in a control panel of the alarm monitoring system. When these components/alarm devices detect an alarm event, they generally activate an on-board siren to alert those at the premises to the presence of the danger that they are designed to detect. Unfortunately, without an interface to an alarm monitoring system capable of transmitting data pertaining to the alarm event to a monitoring center or other contact (such as a system owner's cell phone, neighbor, or relative), notice of the alarm event is limited to those at the premises. This limitation can lead to serious consequences, including catastrophic loss of property in the event of a fire when the occupants of a premises are away, or even death in the case of a carbon monoxide event when the occupants are present and sleeping.
One existing system uses a separate device to detect the output from the alarm device such as a smoke or carbon monoxide detector's annunciator, and transmit a signal to a control panel or monitoring center. Using such a separate device provides the requisite communication interface necessary to adapt an incompatible preexisting detector/alarm device to a subsequently added alarm monitoring system, but adds its own set of disadvantages. For example, the additional device includes sensor and transmitter that are separately housed from the alarm device and require an additional power source, which may require running electrical cords across the surface of a ceiling and down the exterior of a wall to an outlet. This results in a potential hazard of its own making and is unaesthetic in its implementation. In addition, it introduces another device to install to a monitoring system, and additional possible points of failure.